Colorado Rockies third base coach Stu Cole, left, congratulates Nolan Arenado who circles the bases after hitting a solo home run off Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw in the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, April 8, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw reacts after giving up a solo home run to Colorado Rockies' Nolan Arenado in the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, April 8, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER >> Coors Field can do bad things to even the best of pitchers. And this time it did.

Left-hander Clayton Kershaw gave up back-to-back home runs for the first time in his career and three home runs in a game for the first time since April 2013 as the Colorado Rockies handed the Dodgers a 4-2 defeat Saturday night.

“I didn’t know that,” Kershaw said. “That was cool for a little bit, I guess. You never expect to give up home runs. Kudos to them. Good job.”

“A little bit” in this case was 1,772 1/3 innings in his career before Mark Reynolds and Gerardo Parra went deep consecutively in the sixth inning Saturday.

“I didn’t know that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“You know what – he’s human. … It’s going to happen that he will make mistakes and those guys took advantage of it.”

Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado was first, sending a 2-and-2 curveball over the wall in straightaway center field with two outs in the first inning. It was “probably a pitch I shouldn’t throw,” Kershaw said later, declining to specify whether it was the pitch sequence or location that he found regrettable.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I shouldn’t have thrown it. You give up a home run, you probably should throw a different pitch.”

He threw different ones to Reynolds and Parra.

With a runner on first and one out in the sixth, Reynolds took one slider in the dirt and then mashed the next one into the left field seats for a two-run home run that gave the Rockies a 3-1 lead.

Three pitches later, Kershaw served up another home run to Parra on a 1-and-1 fastball.

“Yeah, I mean – he’s the best pitcher in baseball for a reason,” Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said, admitting to some degree of shock at the mistakes by Kershaw. “They got a couple balls up in the air and they went out.”

It was only the third time in Kershaw’s career he has given up multiple home runs in an inning (the first since 2009) and the first time he’d even given up three home runs in a game since Everth Cabrera, Chris Denorfia and Kyle Blanks got to him for the San Diego Padres on April 17, 2013.

Kershaw has only given up as many as three home runs in a calendar month once in each of the past two seasons, both times in April. And it led to his first loss at Coors Field since April 2011, ending an 11-start unbeaten streak at the notoriously hitter-friendly ballpark.

“I think just the mentality of it — people tell you over and over how different it is and how the ball flies and all that stuff,” Kershaw said. “I just think you have to be better than that. You can’t think about that. You just go pitch. Tonight I don’t think that was a factor. The balls that were going to go out were going to go out.

“I like this place actually. I like the park. It’s fun to come here. It’s always a challenge, more so because of the team than the place.”

The Dodgers’ hitters have not had any fun at Coors Field this visit. They have managed a total of three runs in losing the first two games of the series.

Andrew Toles had a solo home run in the fifth inning Saturday. But the Dodgers stranded two runners in scoring position in the second inning and another in the fourth when Parra made a diving play in left field. Yasiel Puig led off the seventh with a double but must have gotten tired of waiting there while Chase Utley and Logan Forsythe struck out – he bolted for third and was thrown out trying to steal, ending the inning.

“I know George (Lombard, third base coach) talked to him,” Roberts said. “It was something that, after it happened, he knew it was a baserunning mistake.”

The Dodgers added a second run in the eighth when Franklin Gutierrez led off with a double, moved to third on a fly out and scored on a two-out RBI single by Gonzalez. That was the Dodgers’ first hit with a runner in scoring position since Thursday. They are 1 for 12 with RISP in the first two games of this series.

“You keep going,” Gonzalez said of the Dodgers’ hit-and-miss offense in the first week of the season. “What is it – Game Five, Game Six? Everybody is just trying to find their rhythm. Once we do, we know what we’re capable of . This offense is going to put up runs.”

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.

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